


Love, Lies, & Deception

by Imcalledzorro



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Team as Family, birthday celebration, jack's birthday
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28700127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imcalledzorro/pseuds/Imcalledzorro
Summary: Five times Mac and Jack (and later Riley) had to lie to Bozer about what happened to them and one time they didn’t
Comments: 7
Kudos: 31





	1. Why So Blue?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Turkey Day: All the Trimmings](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27394474) by [Haven126](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haven126/pseuds/Haven126). 



> So recently Haven126 posted their masterful Turkey Day series (which if you haven’t read you need to run, not walk to read the series!) on AO3 and uploaded a new chapter to their ‘Trimmings’ series. In it Mac turned himself & Jack blue to con the bad guys into thinking they were dead (seriously you need to go read it) so I commented saying it would have been hilarious to see Bozer’s reaction to them being blue. We commented back and forth, and Haven126 asked if anyone had written about the excuses that Bozer had been given. I replied I didn’t think so, and Haven’s reply was, “I sense some new fic coming from you soon.” And with an endorsement like that I couldn’t help but to write a little something despite being in the middle of a couple of other stories, lol. So here is the first one, “Why so blue?”  
> With a huge thanks to my Beta bkworm4life4 for all of her hard work, and for the title as well! She is awesome! As always I don’t own MacGyver

Stepping out of the Phoenix showers in the men’s locker room Mac was irritated to realize that he was still blue, albeit a lighter shade of blue than before, but still blue. The other shower shut off and Jack’s voice floated out, “Hey Hoss?”

“Yeah,” Mac knew what Jack was going to say even before he said it.

“This junk that you gave me to get it off, just ain’t cuttin’ it.” Jack’s loud voice echoed off the tiles in the otherwise empty locker room. “I’m still blue. Not like blue, blue, but still blue.”

“Think you could say blue a few more times in a sentence, there Jack?” Mac asked with a grin as he toweled his hair dry.

A moment passed then, “No?”

Mac grinned at how Jack said it and he could just imagine Jack’s face, “Yeah, I’m blue too.” Mac answered as he got dressed.

“So, what are we gonna tell Bozer?” Mac could tell that Jack was out of the shower and was also getting dressed. Mac groaned as he thought about what to tell his best friend and roommate. Bozer didn’t know that he and Jack actually worked for a covert agency and were really spies. He thought that they just worked at a think tank, doing think tanky things. Jack’s voice cut into Mac’s thoughts, “I ain’t missin’ supper man, when you called to say we were going to be running a bit late it sounded so good, and playin’ dead has left me hungry enough to eat a cow. Everything but the moo and hooves.”

“Gross!” Mac exclaimed, He knew that the tongue and tail were considered a delicacy in other countries, but he shuddered at the thought as Jack plopped down on the bench beside him, injured leg splayed out in front of him.

“You coming up with any ideas in the big brain of yours?” Jack stomped his boot on and started lacing it up. “You could always tell him that we went to a rave and got paint on us?” Jack shrugged, as he gingerly put his other boot on the injured ankle.

Mac looked incredulously at his partner, “How do you even know what a rave is, much less have you ever been to one? And how’s the ankle?”

Jack shrugged, wiggled the ankle a few times, and headed towards the door, “Tomato, to-ma-to. It’s a lot better Hoss. I can walk on it an everythin’, Doc just said to take it easy for a little bit. Well you have until we get to your house to decide.” Jack grinned back at Mac. “And I’m driving.” With a silent groan Mac grabbed his knapsack and hurried to catch up to Jack. They had only gotten a few steps when Jack froze. “I’ve got it!” He exclaimed. “We did one of those run things where they throw the colors at you!” Jack grinned obviously proud of himself.

“Well that might work for me, but what about you?” Mac teased as he laughed at the glare on Jack face. “Now that I think about it, the spatter pattern wouldn’t match. The dye is thrown, and I---“

Jack held up a hand stopping Mac in his tracks. “Hang, on, there Bud. One, I can run just as fast as you there. Usain Bolt, I just choose not to when somethings not chasing me, and two I don’t care what you tell Bozer, as long as he believes you. Now hurry up I’m starving.”

On the drive back to his place Mac racked his brain trying to think of something that would make sense and Bozer would believe. It had to be something that people who worked at a think tank would do, so it couldn’t be anything too crazy, which totally eliminated the truth. Before Mac knew it, Jack was pulling into the driveway. With a glance at his partner Jack exited the vehicle, “I hope you brought your tap shoes.”

Opening the front door the aroma of freshly baked bread and chili greeted them. “Hey Boze, we’re back.” Mac called out as he closed the door.

“And we’re starving! Man that smells good!” Jack threw in for good measure.

“Oh good, I’ve had the…” Bozer’s voice trailed off as he turned around and caught sight of Mac and Jack. He stared at them blinking a few times, and then asked, “Why so blue?” Bozer started laughing like he had told the funniest joke ever, pretty soon he was sitting on the floor he was laughing so hard. After a few minutes Bozer managed to pull himself together. “Seriously man, why are ya’ll so…” He waved his hands at them, “blue?”

Mac looked at Jack, “Well---" Mac started to say, then the perfect excuse hit him. “The National Treasury had asked us to see if we could make the dye packs that are put in bank robbery bags more potent. They wanted something that would coat the robbers and be even harder to get off, So I was experimenting with one of the new packs in my office...”

Jack’s eyes lit up and he seamlessly took over the story. “And I was just sitting there, bored outta my gourd and waiting for Mac while he was doing his brain thing, so when I found this stack of money I got all excited and picked it up. Mac tried to stop me, but then the dang thing exploded all over both of us. I jumped so badly that I aggravated an old Delta injury to my ankle.” He held up his injured ankle, then with a grin continued, “If you think this is bad, you should have seen us earlier before I scrubbed several layers of my skin off.”

Bozer had a huge grin on his face, “Whatever you say Papa Smurf.”

Jack elbowed Mac in the side, “Guess, that makes you Brainy Smurf, Hoss.”

“That makes me hungry.” Mac replied as he rolled his eyes at Jack

“I don’t care what you call me, as long as you call me for supper.” Jack quipped.

“Whatever you say Genie.” Bozer snickered, “Or with your hair like that more like Sonic the hedgehog.” He grinned at his two blue friends. “This is gonna be fun!”

At Jack’s long expression Bozer said, “Go sit down. I’ll bring your food to you.” As they passed by Bozer said, “Make sure you prop that foot up, and I’ll grab you a ice pack in your favorite color of course.” Bozer burst out laughing again as he disappeared into the kitchen to dish up the food.

“Gentlemen,” Bozer placed two bowls of steaming hot chili with a thick slab of cornbread, steam still curling from it. After he set his own food down he pulled out his phone, “I feel like we need some music to enjoy our dinner with. Here we go!” A second later the sound of ‘Blue (Da Ba De)’ by Eiffel 65 started playing, almost drown out by Bozer’s laugher and Mac and Jack’s twin groans. Mac had a feeling that the next several days would feel like an eternity. “Smile for the camera!” Bozer called as he snapped what Mac was sure was a horrific picture. It was definitely going to be a long several days.


	2. Even Deeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the follow up to a story I wrote called “The First Cut’s the Deepest” You don’t necessarily have to read that for this to make sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a epilogue of sorts to a previous story, 'The First Cut is the Deepest'. It can be read alone, or enjoyed after the other story. Thanks to my invaluable beta Bkworm4life4! Hope you enjoy!

Mac was in that stage where he was not quite asleep but not quite awake either when Riley asked from the back seat of his Jeep, “So what are we going to tell Bozer?” On their last mission Mac had sliced up his wrist pretty good, so they needed a good cover story for Bozer. More awake Mac looked over at Jack who was driving.

“Could always go with the good ole runnin’ with scissors,” Jack suggested with a wicked simile. 

“You say that every time, and it still doesn’t make sense,” Mac huffed.

“Lab accident?” Riley suggested. She was three months into her new job at the Phoenix and was getting pretty adept at coming up with good excuses that Bozer would believe for whatever incident befell the team on a mission.

“I used that one last time,” Mac mused.

“I still say running with scissors is a good one. Why else would our teachers warn us about that all the time?” Jack asked brow furrowed.

“So you won’t stab _others_ Jack! You were dropped at lot as a baby, weren’t you?” Riley asked shaking her head.

Mac stifled a laugh.

Jack huffed, “Why are y’all picking on me again? Remember it’s my birthday!”

“Like Mac said earlier, your birthday’s tomorrow.”

“I seem to remember a certain little girl that demanded that we celebrate her birthday all week. You wouldn’t happen to remember her, would you Rils?”

Riley retaliated by sticking out her tongue, “So what are we really going to tell Bozer? You know he’ll spot that bandage and start asking questions just as soon as we step foot in the house.”

Mac knew she was right. Bozer had a sixth sense for when Mac was hurt. It had never stopped him from trying to hide his injuries though, either now or when they were growing up, because Mac hated making his friend worry. He remembered back when he was at MIT and he sprained his ankle. When he had his weekly phone call with Bozer later that day, Bozer somehow seemed to know that something had happened and Mac was hurt.

Jack snapped his fingers, “I know you can tell him it was a freak fondue accident!”

Riley and Mac both dissolved in laughter, “How in the heck would that happen?” Riley asked between fits of giggles.

Jack scowled in the rearview at her, “Those little fork things are pretty sharp! I haven’t heard any suggestions from you missy!”

“Self-defense!” Riley blurted out.

“Huh?” Jack asked as Mac just looked confused.

“Okay hear me out, so Mac was helping Jack out with a self defense class that he was teaching. When one of the participants instead of using a fake knife used a real one, and Mac got cut. What you think?” Riley sat back in satisfaction.

Jack nodded, “We can work with that.”

“Or I could just say that I tripped carrying something made of glass, the glass broke and cut my wrist?” Mac suggested.

“That would be a lot easier.” Riley agreed.

“You are pretty accident prone, but wouldn’t that fall under a lab accident?” Jack chimed in.

Mac shook his head, “There are plenty of things made of glass outside of the lab. Like a drinking glass, for example.”

Jack shrugged, “Sounds fine to me,” he said as he pulled into Mac’s driveway and parked beside his own car. Jack took in a deep breath and released it with a huge grin. Turning to Mac he said, “I can smell the ribs from here.”

As soon as they opened the door Bozer was standing there welcoming them home with a party blower that made that annoying racket. He even had on a party hat to complete the festive nature. “Welcome back from what I’m sure was a very boring conference.” He pulled out some more party hats, “Here are some party hats so we can get the party started.”

With a wide grin Jack quickly donned his party hat and passed the other two to Mac and Riley then quickly followed Bozer into the house. Mac and Riley exchanged glances then followed them out onto the porch. Mac set his hat down on the table, but Riley donned hers at a jaunty angle. Bozer had already set the picnic table and put out most of the food on it. Off to the side Mac could see a cake shaped like Texas under the Texas flag and a couple of presents were sitting under it. He spied the one he had wrapped in duct tape. He was pulled out of his ruminating by a shout of alarm from Bozer. “Why do you have a bandage on your arm Mac?”

“Ummmmm,” Mac started to say completely forgetting what the excuse was. He hated lying to his best friend, but thankfully Jack and Riley were there to cover for him.

“Can you believe that our clumsy friend here sliced his arm open on a piece of glass?” Jack asked as he slung an arm around Bozer and steered him towards the grill still talking. “So here we were at this _boring_ meetin’ they finally let us have a break, well boy wonder over there offers to grab us some drinks, but Captain Clumsy tripped, and glass exploded everywhere! So we ended up with no drinks and a trip to the hospital for stitches. I’m just glad that his wrist was the only part of him that was cut.”

Riley grinned and added her two cents, “I’m still not convinced that Mac didn’t do it on purpose. That last speaker was so boring!”

Mac held up his hands, “you caught me, I took one for the team. Go team!” Everybody laughed including Bozer.

“Okay, everyone go sit down, the best ribs that have ever touched your lips are about to be served.” While Bozer took the ribs off the grill the rest of the team helped themselves to the containers of food already on the table. Jack heaped potato salad, slaw, and baked beans on his plate.

Jack took one bite of the potato salad and stared gape mouthed at Bozer, “It can’t! But how? This tastes just like Granny D’s super-secret recipe!”

“That’s ‘cause it is Granny D’s super secret recipe.” Bozer said laughing, as he set the ribs down and had a seat himself. “After giving me the rib recipe, she felt like it had to have her potato salad to go with it, so she gave that to me after making me swear _again_ that I would never give it out, even if the good Lord himself asks. The baked beans and slaw are your momma’s recipes. She didn’t make a brother swear an oath.”

Supper went by quickly with many complements to the chef, and soon it was present time. Mac picked up his gift and the other two sitting there while Riley grabbed the three that Jack’s mom had shipped from Texas. Bozer and Riley had chipped in together and gotten Jack a new Metallica shirt _and_ VIP tickets to their next show. Mac was so glad to see that most of the ice had thawed between the two of them and that they were becoming friends. Soon it was down to just Mac’s present.

“I know this is from you Hoss, the duct tape gives it away.” Jack pulled out his pocket knife and cleanly slit open the box. In it sat a digital picture frame. Jack looked up with a slight smile, “Thanks Bud?”

“Turn it on.” Mac said, anxious to see if Jack would like it after all the work that had been put into it.

Jack turned over the frame looking for the switch until Riley leaned over and flipped it on when Jack couldn’t find it. The screen flashed on and a picture of his parent’s wedding came onto the screen, followed a few seconds later by a picture of him and his sister at church, then another picture of just him when he was about six. “It’s a digital picture frame. You mom, sister, and I worked together to put it together, it’s full of old pictures of your family and you.” Another picture flashed on screen, but Mac couldn’t see this one. When Jack didn’t say anything he nervously added, “There are two more flash drives in there. One has pictures from high school to when you first enlisted, and the other one has the most recent pictures, including that one you like of all of us on the deck.”

“Thank you, Mac.” Jack said, his voice thick with emotion as he continued to watch the pictures change on the screen. “This…this is great.” He looked up at the three young people surrounding him. “Thank you for the perfect party. Now, let’s eat that cake!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping to post every Monday, but will switch between my two WIP's, this one and Capture + Betrayal + Rescue.


	3. Mission Unexpected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first time that they are called away unexpectedly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for making it this far! I hope you are enjoying these, feel free to let me know what you think, no matter when you read this! With a huge thanks to my Beta bkworm4life4 for being so amazing, she got this betaed super fast despite me sending it to her super last minute!

“Is something wrong, Mr. MacGyver?” The sound of his boss, Patricia Thornton cut through Mac’s internal thoughts bringing his mind back to the meeting.

“No, ma’am.” Mac replied meekly.

“Good, then I would suggest that you and Dalton get ready to leave.” Patti turned to face the large screen in the War Room clearly dismissing them.

Once they reached the hallway Jack shot his partner a worried glance. “You ain’t getting nerves now are ya?”

“NO! Why would you ask that?” Sometimes, despite their time being partners in the army and at DXS, Jack still surprised Mac with his seemingly out of the ballpark questions.

“Well just the way you froze up in there, and that’s your nervous look. We’ve gone on missions before Hoss, this is just our first emergency mission.” Jack was being all concerned.

“It’s not that. What am I going to tell Bozer?”

“Ohhhhhhhhh!” Jack exclaimed snapping his fingers. “We were supposed to have that thing with your neighbors tonight. I’d forgotten all about it.”

“Well I hadn’t, and now I’m stuck with trying to find an excuse that he’ll believe.” Mac complained as they stepped into the locker room where both men kept their go bags.

Jack plopped down in front of his locker, “Well I’d get those gerbils to run a little faster and generate more brain power, cause we’re leaving in.” Jack looked at his watch, “Less than two hours and your gonna have to tell him something.”

Mac started slowly opening his locker, “That’s not how…” Mac stopped realizing that Jack was just harassing him. With an eye roll Mac continued, “He already gets suspicious that we have to go to all these ‘conferences’.” Mac did the air quotes around conferences. “I doubt that he would buy an ‘emergency conference’ excuse.”

Crinkling his nose as he pulled out a pair of stinky socks, Jack tossed them back into his locker, “Yeah, brother I don’t think that I would buy that excuse either.”

Blowing out a breath Mac sighed, he had been having a wonderful day working in the lab and looking forward to their party. He had even been thinking about inviting Nikki to come over at some point during the weekend. Then Director Thornton had called them in for an emergency mission. “It’s not like I can tell him the truth. Sorry Boz, I’ve got to go on a covert mission in a foreign country for a clandestine agency.”

Laughing Jack responded, “He’d think you were lying! You could tell him that there was an emergency with your family.”

“What family?” Mac asked flatly, as he finished stuffing his bag, and closed the locker door harder than he meant to.

“My family,” Jack said softly. “You could tell him that there’s an emergency back in Texas and that you’re going with me to hold my hand.”

Mac sighed, “That wouldn’t work. We would hear from him every hour wanting to know if they were better plus I wouldn’t put it past him to somehow send food out to them. But thanks.”

Jack had finished at his locker, once the door was closed and the lock put back on he grabbed his bag and headed for the door. “I’ve got to grab me some more firepower.” He stopped at the door, “Remember hoss, the best lies have some semblance of the truth in them. Meet you at the exit.” Then Jack was gone, the door closing softly behind him.

Frustrated Mac pulled his cell out and stared at it. He jumped when it started ringing. Without checking to see who it was he answered the phone, “Hello?”

“Glad you picked up man. I’m at the store grabbing some last minute supplies. You know like somebody was supposed to do yesterday?”

Mac dropped his head into his hand, it was Bozer. “Hey Boz, I’m so sorry about that. I worked late, and with-“

Bozer didn’t let him finish, “That’s fine Roomie. I needed to grab a few things myself anyway. So is Nikki coming and is there anything that you need from the store? I know how you get when your orange juice gets too low.”

Mac laughed, “I’ve got a good amount of OJ, but about Nikki…”

Bozer cut Mac off mid-sentence, “Oh, don’t tell me that she turned you down? You can do better Mac! You are the smartest person that I know, in fact you’re so smart-“

“Boz, Boz!” Mac interrupted. “She didn’t turn me down I haven’t asked yet.”

“Well what are you waiting for? The cows to come home?”

“You’ve been hanging out with Jack to much.” Mac said laughing.

“Every once in a while, the man has a pearl of wisdom,” Bozer replied. “Hey do you know if we need more bananas?”

Thinking for a second Mac replied, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I grabbed the last one for a quick breakfast this morning. Listen Boz I have to tell you something.” Mac hated having to lie to his best friend. He sucked at it, and usually Bozer could see right through him, but since working at the Phoenix he had gotten a bit better at misleading Bozer about what he actually did. “So I had something come up at work and I won’t be able to come to the party. In fact I won’t be home for a few days.” Bozer stayed quiet for a few seconds, just long enough for Mac to worry that the call had been dropped. “Bozer? You still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. What came up that you can’t come home for a few days?” He didn’t sound mad, but merely perplexed.

“So there is this conference that Jack and I are supposed to attend, but somehow the information got sent to my junk folder, and I didn’t know the dates. So it was a good thing that my boss was keeping tabs on it, and reminded me about it.” Mac was nodding to himself, _sounds plausible to me_ , he thought.

“Oh man that sucks.” Bozer complained as a wave of relief went through Mac, Bozer had bought his story. “I was looking forward to Jack’s antics,” Bozer paused. “Hey, why don’t I re-schedule it for next week? You don’t have any more conferences then do you?”

“Not that I know of.” Mac chuckled for effect. “That sounds like a great plan.”

“Only if you ask Nikki to come.”

“Fine,” Mac agreed unhappily. He glanced at his watch, “Shoot I’ve got to go if I want to catch the plane. Thanks, Bozer, you’re the best.”

“Don’t get too bored, and try to keep Jack in line.”

Mac chuckled, “I don’t know if that’s possible. See you.”

“See ya, safe travels.” With that Bozer hung up. Mac sighed in relief, another crisis adverted. Then he glanced at his watch again; if he ran he could just about reach the exit doors before Jack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping to post every Monday, but will switch between my two WIP's, this one and Capture + Betrayal + Rescue.

**Author's Note:**

> Liked it? Found a problem? Let me know!


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